The App Store and the scam app invasion

Fraudulent apps are a a complex, entangled, messy piece of business that harms Apple, developers, and consumers.

Recently there's been a dramatic rise in the number of fraudulent apps getting attention -- even top sales positions -- in the iPhone and iPad App Store. Some scam apps are copy-cats that duplicate as closely as possible the name and icon of popular games in order to confuse consumers and get them to buy a scam app instead of the real thing. This costs the consumer money for the scam app and developers money for the lost sale. Others scam apps appear to be byte-for-byte copies, stolen whole-cloth and offered for sale side-by-side with the original. This still costs the developer money for the lost sale, and while consumers get a functioning app, it's likely not one with any support going forward. Still other scam apps rip off the copyright of a popular brand (like Pokemon) for bogus apps that do nothing but cheat customers out of their money.

They all combine to damage confidence in the App Store, and harm the experience of the iOS platform.

For a developer, it's just one more risk they need to consider when developing for iOS -- even if they make a superbly crafted app, avoid dilution and downward price pressure from lower quality apps in the same space, and hit the jackpot by landing on a top seller list, their marketshare and customer base can be quickly assaulted by scammers.

For consumers, it's just one more hurdle to face when trying to find the good apps -- even if they hear about something fantastic from a trusted source, even if they manage to find the right app, they now have to worry if the one they find is the right, right app.

For Apple, it's just one more problem they have to figure out in order to maintain the appeal and value of their ecosystem -- even though they have a curated system that makes it easy to sell and easy to buy, they now have to deal with scammers damaging both the selling and buying trust of their store.

Right now, from the outside, Apple's approach seems to be that of YouTube -- approve any app that meets technical criteria and then respond to publicity or legal takedown demands from copyright holders when and if they come in. It's one of the smartest, safest approaches, legally, for Apple. They certainly don't want to take on the responsibility of pre-emptively moderating intellectual property, and then have their necks on the lawsuit line when something slips through and the rights holders sue both the offending party and Apple.

So it's a complex, entangled, messy piece of business that harms Apple, developers, and consumers. The fault lies entirely with the scammers making the fraudulent apps -- they're the ones to blame. But ultimately Apple will have to fix it, because it's Apple's store.

Paul Haddad from Tapbots had an interesting suggestion on Twitter: Start with the Top 100 lists. Keep those extra, extra curated. Scam apps in search results are more difficult to tackle problem, but scam apps in the Top 100, especially in games, is probably manageable. Get a team that knows the biggest classics and the hottest new games, and when something that looks like a scam app shows up in the Top 100, contact the developer and ask for proof of ownership and license, and contact the owner of the original app and inform them of a potential violation of their IP.

If the scammers can't make money, they'll be less inclined to spend time scamming.

It likely puts Apple in a more actionable position, will probably get them sued more often when a scam app slips through or when a non-scam app gets incorrectly targeted, but it just might be the cost of doing business to maintain a better, more valuable store for developers.

Apple could also make it easier to report a scam app via the App Store. You can currently report problems with apps and games you've purchased, but it would be great if you could flag inappropriate content right from the dropdown menu on ever app price sticker. It does take some of the shine off, and would result in a lot of noise for Apple, but huge spikes in reporting could also let them get some crowd-sourced help in finding offenders faster, ultimately letting them keep a cleaner, better store.

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Reader comments

The App Store and the scam app invasion

And how you consider app on [sites] where people can buy "test" (in order to have more download, so a bigger chance to be in the top 25) how do you consider that? This service are efficient in France, and give chance only to developer which have lot of money!
To be in the top 25 now, it's not a question of app quality but a question of money!

If people weren't so stupid and actually looked at what they were buying, this wouldn't be as big of a problem. People need to learn to protect the,selves from situations such as this and stop expecting others to do it for them.

So what happened with Apple's "walled garden"? I thought the big selling point for the Apple App Store was that Apple was routing through these things and clearing them for sale? What happened to all the QA that Apple is supposed to be doing??? Is the money being redirected to "the pile" instead of used for improving QA?

How do you report an app as being fraud. How can Apple miss some of these Pokemon Yellow not made by Nintendo and Pokemon company that should have been a Red flag.
I starting to think that Apple is letting everything in and plugging them when people complain.

If you could follow the money trail, might be able to find the problem. Yes the buyer needs to be educated to what they are buying, but Apple is starting to sumit under pressure to get apps out quicker, and scam apps can slip by the QA

There was some issue like this a couple years ago where the developer was responsible for the cost of the entire purchase. So if Apple took their 30% cut the dev gad to pony up for that. No dev will ever want to do that, especially on a massive scale. Boom, problem solved.

All of these tactics are focusing on what Apple can do, but anything Apple can and does do is only half the fight. Whatever Apple does to curb the scamming will be of little effect until a developer with a clear case of infringement takes the scammer(s) to court. Infringement cases are hard to prove and win though, so no I don't think it should be solely on developers shoulders, but solid cases need to go to court. I am thinking specifically of Nimblebit LLC vs. Zynga, aka. Tiny Towers vs. Dream Heights.
Nimblebit has a clear and winnable case here, as they can prove intimate prior knowledge of their app by Zynga, as Zynga attempted to purchase them. That prior knowledge is all a copyright owner needs to win. Think Art Buchwald's winning copyright suit against Eddie Murphy over the movie "Coming to America". Art Buchwald didn't win because he could prove he wrote a similar story to the final film, he won because he was able to show Eddie Murphy had prior knowledge of his script.
Nimblebit has well documented proof of Zynga's prior knowledge, through Zynga's offers to purchase the app as well as all the press that surrounded the attempted purchase. Nimblebit can easily show that Zynga made a priot legal attempt to gain the property and when they were unable to buy it out right, they copied it. One winning suit like this would do alot to curb the scammers, most of who are without the depth of pockets to fight the legitimate developers. It won't stop large companies, but most large companies will try to make "inspired by" apps that are different enough, ie. "Monopoly Towers", to be different apps -not stolen copies of the better original.
How about a "Should Nimblebit sue Zynga" poll Rene? I'm curious how many readers would take which side.

The solution to 70% of the problem is simple: introduce a try-before-buy mechanism to the App store. That way the only scam apps that will get through will be the 1:1 copies.
Users then will simply have to look at the rating/reviews and make up their mind whether they want to buy the app.

"Report a Problem" has miraculously disappeared from the iPhone app store.
That appears to leave us with only one way to let others know about scam and ripoff apps: buy them and post reviews. It's a monetary win-win for crApple -- they get income from sales and savings on staff not having to deal with customer concerns.
Feh.

Dear apple
I have purchased an app from the apple app store called "My Lock Screen" for $2 canadian the ompanies name was "Huong Le Thi Quynh" The app clamed to be "The best security system to protect your iPhone" featuring multiple password locks but it turned out to be a very basic wall paper designer.
Apple, i wish for my money ($2) to be returned to my apple ID davebrw@hotmail.com at the very least, but more importantly I desire this app to be band from the app store and the creator brought to justice!
Thank you
Sencerily David Walker